John Baer

John M. Baer is a graduate of Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland, holds a Masters Degree from Temple University, is a former Fellow of the American Political Science Assn. in Washington, under whose auspices he studied at the Brookings Institution and worked a year in Congress, and a Fellow of the Loyola University School of Law's inaugural Journalist Law School program in Los Angeles. The National Journal (in 2002) called Baer one of the county's top 10 political journalists outside Washington, saying Baer has, "the ability to take the skin off a politician without making hurt too much."

Email John at baerj@phillynews.com

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John Baer: Tax-hike plan hitting GOP wall, for now

Posted 07/08/2009

AT THE START of week two of the annual state budget impasse, Republicans are increasingly convinced that they're on stronger political footing than Gov. Rendell and Democrats, and many guarantee eventual passage of a no-tax budget.

John Baer: 'Per diem' is a magic term during budget impasse - 07/06/2009: HERE ARE some fun facts related to the state budget impasse. Lawmakers can get up to $158 a day in expenses for each and every day the budget battle goes on, and most can collect it even in the absence of a budget.
John Baer: When it comes to a state budget, we're king-less - 07/01/2009: NOW, SOME thoughts on the budget that isn't. Today is the start of the state fiscal year, the seventh consecutive year that the largest full-time legislature in America has failed to do the one thing that it's required to do: pass a balanced spending plan by July 1.
John Baer: State Police at center of latest budget squabble - 06/29/2009: JUST ONE EXAMPLE of the mess and confusion permeating the state budget is a fight over funding for the State Police.
John Baer: It's not the first time a pol's arrogance has resulted in stunning stupidity - 06/25/2009: I DON'T KNOW, maybe these elected, highly visible-in-an-age-of-constant-coverage public servants each think, "I'm the one who won't get caught." Maybe they think a cloak of power offers privilege and protection denied to mortal men. What other explanation can there be?
John Baer: Top 10 reasons to pass the Pa. budget on time - 06/24/2009: WITH APOLOGIES to David Letterman and the staff of CBS' "Late Show," and with the fiscal-year deadline less than a week away, here now (with the help of a few readers) are the Top 10 reasons why Pennsylvania lawmakers should pass the annual budget on time.
John Baer: A veteran Democrat's modest proposal: Forgo new taxes, see what happens - 06/22/2009: IT WASN'T Deep Throat and it wasn't in a parking garage, but it did strike me as interesting. In a Capitol hallway in Harrisburg after hours, I met up with a veteran Democratic lawmaker from Western Pennsylvania. He's irked about the state budget, which is due next week but highly contested and promising to provide a long summer of white-hot political discord.
John Baer: To raise taxes or not: Let the Ed-Joe debate begin - 06/17/2009: I JUST LOVE the idea of a state-budget debate between our governor, who wants to raise taxes, and our lieutenant governor, who does not.
John Baer: Budget impasse makes Pa. workers nervous - 06/15/2009: STATE WORKERS are antsy, and rightly so. Their stake in on-time passage of a budget - which increasingly looks like fantasy - is a tad higher than most. Without a budget by the June 30 fiscal-year deadline, the majority face payless paydays.
John Baer: Up in State College, JayPa wants to run with the ball - 06/10/2009: IT STRUCK me as strange that Penn State quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno, son of the state's principal deity and an active campaigner for Barack Obama, spoke at a journalism conference recently in Gettysburg.
John Baer: Pandas, turtles aside, state budget looms - 06/08/2009: IT'S INSTRUCTIVE of our state legislative process that capital buzz these days swarms around a war of whips and, um, a panda bear.